Why use libcurl?

I'm just learning the basi开发者_JS百科cs of socket programming for C++, but I've heard people mentioning libcurl fairly often. What's the advantage of using libcurl instead of programming sockets the traditional way?

Also, what are the differences between libcurl, curl, and curl++? Which one should I be using?

libcurl is a library for communicating with different web services like FTP or HTTP and is no replacement for socket.

To learn the basics of socket programming, you have to use socket.

The differences:

• curl is the binary
• libcurl is the c-library
• curl++ a c++-library

libcurl handles application level protocols, so you don't have to write your own HTTP client code (for example).

Keep learning the basics - it'll give you a better base from which to understand how libraries like libcurl are implemented.